--- title: Aesop’s Fables, part 12 — Three hundred Aesop’s fables · full text with trees · page 2 description: Aesop’s Fables, part 12, «Three hundred Aesop’s fables» by Aesop: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: The Spendthrift and the Swallow --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/page/2/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Three hundred Aesop’s fables](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/) / Aesop’s Fables, part 12 # Aesop’s Fables, part 12 · page 2 [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/) **2** - [101](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/101/) — What is most truly valuable is often underrated. - [102](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/102/) — The Lark Burying Her Father - [103](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/103/) — THE LARK (according to an ancient legend) was created before the earth itself, and when her father died, as there was no earth, she could find no place of burial for him. - [104](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/104/) — She let him lie uninterred for five days, and on the sixth day, not knowing what else to do, she buried him in her own head. - [105](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/105/) — Hence she obtained her crest, which is popularly said to be her father’s grave-hillock. - [106](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/106/) — Youth’s first duty is reverence to parents. - [107](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/107/) — The Gnat and the Bull - [108](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/108/) — A GNAT settled on the horn of a Bull, and sat there a long time. - [109](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/109/) — Just as he was about to fly off, he made a buzzing noise, and inquired of the Bull if he would like him to go. - [110](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/110/) — The Bull replied, “I did not know you had come, and I shall not miss you when you go away.” - [111](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/111/) — Some men are of more consequence in their own eyes than in the eyes of their neighbors. - [112](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/112/) — The Monkey and the Camel - [113](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/113/) — THE BEASTS of the forest gave a splendid entertainment at which the Monkey stood up and danced. - [114](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/114/) — Having vastly delighted the assembly, he sat down amidst universal applause. - [115](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/115/) — The Camel, envious of the praises bestowed on the Monkey and desiring to divert to himself the favour of the guests, proposed to stand up in his turn and dance for their amusement. - [116](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/116/) — He moved about in so utterly ridiculous a manner that the Beasts, in a fit of indignation, set upon him with clubs and drove him out of the assembly. - [117](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/117/) — It is absurd to ape our betters. - [118](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/118/) — The Dogs and the Hides - [119](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/119/) — SOME DOGS famished with hunger saw a number of cowhides steeping in a river. - [120](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/120/) — Not being able to reach them, they agreed to drink up the river, but it happened that they burst themselves with drinking long before they reached the hides. - [121](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/121/) — Attempt not impossibilities. - [122](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/122/) — The Jackdaw and the Fox - [123](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/123/) — A HALF-FAMISHED JACKDAW seated himself on a fig-tree, which had produced some fruit entirely out of season, and waited in the hope that the figs would ripen. - [124](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/124/) — A Fox seeing him sitting so long and learning the reason of his doing so, said to him, “You are indeed, sir, sadly deceiving yourself; you are indulging a hope strong enough to cheat you, but which will never reward you with enjoyment.” - [125](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/125/) — Mercury and the Workmen - [126](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/126/) — A WORKMAN, felling wood by the side of a river, let his axe drop by accident into a deep pool. - [127](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/127/) — Being thus deprived of the means of his livelihood, he sat down on the bank and lamented his hard fate. - [128](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/128/) — Mercury appeared and demanded the cause of his tears. - [129](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/129/) — After he told him his misfortune, Mercury plunged into the stream, and, bringing up a golden axe, inquired if that were the one he had lost. - [130](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/130/) — On his saying that it was not his, Mercury disappeared beneath the water a second time, returned with a silver axe in his hand, and again asked the Workman if it were his. - [131](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/131/) — When the Workman said it was not, he dived into the pool for the third time and brought up the axe that had been lost. - [132](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/132/) — The Workman claimed it and expressed his joy at its recovery. - [133](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/133/) — Mercury, pleased with his honesty, gave him the golden and silver axes in addition to his own. - [134](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/134/) — The Workman, on his return to his house, related to his companions all that had happened. - [135](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/135/) — One of them at once resolved to try and secure the same good fortune for himself. - [136](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/136/) — He ran to the river and threw his axe on purpose into the pool at the same place, and sat down on the bank to weep. - [137](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/137/) — Mercury appeared to him just as he hoped he would; and having learned the cause of his grief, plunged into the stream and brought up a golden axe, inquiring if he had lost it. - [138](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/138/) — The Workman seized it greedily, and declared that truly it was the very same axe that he had lost. - [139](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/139/) — Mercury, displeased at his knavery, not only took away the golden axe, but refused to recover for him the axe he had thrown into the pool. [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/14/) **2** - ← previous: [Aesop’s Fables, part 11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/13/) - next →: [Aesop’s Fables, part 13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/15/) - ↑ back to [Three hundred Aesop’s fables](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg21/)